Between January 1, 2008, and May 31, 2010, there were 969 students who were asked to refund stipends they had received as students of university, Mcast, Junior College, Sixth Form or private educational institutions.

Answering a parliamentary question by Evarist Bartolo (PL), Education Minister Dolores Cristina said the stipends requested for refund had amounted to €140,692, much of which had already been collected.

Most of such refunds were requested in such cases as students having resigned from their courses before the end of the academic year; or when a student would have registered with two educational institutions and never informed the authorities which smart card he or she wanted to keep. There were also a few cases of human error wherein the student would have been issued with two stipends and unilaterally decided to refund one.

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